Tagged Questions

Let $\Sigma$ be a surface with non-empty boundary labelled by finitely many points $x_i$.
For our purposes a spine $s$ for $\Sigma$ is a uni-trivalent graph embedded in $\Sigma$ whose 1-vertices are ...

Hi all! Why are skein modules 1-dimensional on closed 3-manifolds? The result seems clear on closed manifolds with vanishing first Betti number (e.g. $S^3$), but I don't see how to prove it for, say, ...

The Kauffman bracket skein module $K_t(F\times I)$ (where $t$ is an indeterminant and $F$ is a closed surface) is an associative algebra (the operation being "stacking" links in the $I$ direction). ...

Consider for example the approach to the Kuperberg G2 or the Yamada polynomial. I don't know whether relations of graph (in contrast to knot) theory are also usually called "skein" but
I simply carry ...

Given a 3-manifold $M$, one can define the Kauffman bracket skein module $K_t(M)$ as the $C$-vector space with basis "links (including the empty link) in $M$ up to ambient isotopy," modulo the skein ...

I am teaching an advanced undergraduate class on topology. We are doing introductory knot theory at the moment. One of my students asked how do we know to use this skein relation to compute all these ...